It is a common practice in urban stores specializing in the sale of pre-recorded audio tapes, for the self-service display racks through which customers are invited to browse, to contain empty cassette boxes which boxes bear as an inner wrapper (if they are transparent), or as an outer label (if they are opaque), the, very album cover with which the publisher has supplied the pre-recorded audio cassette. Each album cover typically contains photographs and/or artwork and verbal graphics which are distinctive of the particular recording and not only act as informative material for the potential customers, but also permit potential customers to quickly pick out recordings which they have come to recognize by having previously seen the same album covers as reproduced in display advertising in newspapers and in other print and electronic media. Under the conventional system which usually pertains in such shops, the actual pre-recorded cassettes are stored out-of-sight, i.e. under the counter near the check-out register. The intending customer takes the empty but labeled box from the display rack and brings it to the register, where the store employee fills it with the respective cassette from the storage place, at the same time posting an inventory control entry, e.g. via the check-out register as the sale is made and/or by simultaneously removing to an inventoring site some token of the sold item from the storage place.
While such a system is likely to be very acceptable for a store which is primarily devoted to sales of pre-recorded audio cassetes or the like, it is deemed to be impractical for stores in which selling space is at a premium, particularly but not necessarily where the merchandise is bulky, the store wishes to stock multiple copies of many of the items, and the items are being rented, leased or lent, rather than being sold.
Although the invention which has been made for solving the drawbacks of available systems was particularly devised as a way of renting pre-recorded videocassettes from display racks accessible to customers in convenience stores, it should be apparent following absorption of the disclosure of the present invention, that it could be used in the vending of other articles (such as rental tools) and services (such as seating for events in a theater, arena or stadium).